Artist shares designs that will show Spartanburg 'in a new light'

Works of art made possible by $1 million grant

People in the Highlands Community of Spartanburg will share their stories through videos projected on the windows of vacant buildings. This is part of the Seeing Spartanburg in a New Light project by artist Erwin Redl.

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Erwin Redl, the artist working on the project, presented his designs to the City Council for final approval.

Redl created the works of art with help from people living in the neighborhoods that will get them.

"You have to kind of overcome your pride and say, 'OK, this is your city. I'm just making something that you want and not just want I want,'" Redl said.

Redl was born in Austria. He lives in New York and Ohio. He's been working with the Chapman Cultural Center, the Spartanburg Police Department and area contractors to get the projects started.

The designs use light, fabric and existing structures to create art.

"I use the medium light to change the environment, to change the perception of an environment, but also to change almost the social fabric very often of a neighborhood or a city," Redl said.

The smokestacks at Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine in the Northside neighborhood and the former Beaumont Mill will become art through synchronized programmable LED flood lights and fabric in a checkerboard pattern that will wave in the wind.

In downtown Spartanburg, curtains of transparent color swatches will become large-scale mobiles suspended above the lot that is home to Sparkle City Mini Putt. During the day, sunlight will make the curtains look like stained glass.

People living in the Highlands neighborhood will turn their stories into videos that will be projected on the second-story windows in vacant buildings.

Redl believes the people living in those neighborhoods will have a sense of pride and ownership in the projects because they were involved in the creative process.

"Just people getting involved in a site just makes it safer by default. People realize this is not just a smoke stack, it's a symbol of something else that's bigger than us," Redl said. "Crime, by default, only happens if people are not engaged. If people get engaged in a neighborhood, for example, through an art project, it just engages something very positive."

The Spartanburg police chief is excited to have art as a crime-fighting tool.

"We value diversity here, and we value partnership. This is a proactive, positive collaboration with the police and the community overall," said Police Chief Alonzo Thompson. "We're not closed-minded. This is 21st century law enforcement."

The overall goal is to increase safety, beautify the city and bring people together.

"We're really using this to transform our city," said Jennifer Evins, president and CEO of the Chapman Cultural Center.

The lights are scheduled to be turned on on Oct. 4, which is Spartanburg's National Night Out.

"We want to be the residence of choice. We want people to come and live in our city, visit our city. We think people will like what they see once we show it to you in a new light," Thompson said.